POLAND: Free Election

In a spirit of partisan exuberance tempered with terror, Poland
approached its first nationwide popular election, ten days hence. By last
week most of the combined opposition (Socialist and Polish Peasant Party)
candidates had been jailed, and their supporters more or less completely
cowed by the secret police, by striking their names from voting lists and
by arrest. The Communist-dominated Government ventured to predict
an "overwhelming" victory. According to the Potsdam Agreement, the
Polish elections must be absolutely free and secret.

Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, Vice Premier and leader of the combined
opposition, gave the number...